Metagenomic Investigations on Antibiotic Resistance and Microbial Virulence in Oil-Polluted Soils from China

Abstract Engine oil spills have been associated with a wide range of human health problems. However, little is known about the effects of petroleum hydrocarbon pollution on soil microbial communities. In this study, three samples were collected from oil-polluted soils (OPS) and one control soil (CS), from Taolin town, China, near the old engine’s scrapes were used. The aims of this study were to conduct metagenomic sequencing and subsequently perform resistome and Virulome analysis. We also aimed to validate antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes and antibacterial sensitivity profiles among the isolates from oil polluted soils. The OPS microbial community was dominated by bacterial species compared to the control samples which were dominated by metazoans and other organisms. Secondly, the resistosome and virulome analysis showed that ARGs and virulence factors were higher among OPSs microbial communities. Antibiotic susceptibility assay and qPCR analysis for ARGs and virulence factors showed that the oil polluted soil samples had remarkably enhanced expression of these ARGs and virulence genes. Our study suggests that oil pollution contributes to shifting microbial communities to more resilient types that could survive the toxicity of oil pollution and subsequently became more resilient in terms of higher resistance and virulence potential.